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It
makes my day whenever I hear about something that gripes me and
I find out that it does the same to others as well.
You know how it is, you take a position on one thing or another
and you start to believe you are the only person in the world who
sees things the way you do.
Then something
like this happens to make your day a little brighter.
A cleaner at London's Tate Britain modern art gallery threw out
a bag of garbage which formed part of an artwork because it was
thought to be trash, British newspapers reported Friday.
The transparent bag of garbage -- full of newspaper, cardboard and
other bits of paper -- formed part of a work by German-born artist
Gustav Metzger called "Recreation Of First Public Demonstration
Of Auto-Destructive Art."
It was on display next to a sheet of nylon that had been spattered
with acid, and a metal sculpture on a table when a cleaner tossed
it out with the other trash.
A Tate spokesman said the mistake was made the day before the exhibition
opened at the end of June, and although the bag was later rescued,
it had been damaged and Metzger had to replace it with another one.
The newspapers
said the spokesman would not reveal how much the bag had cost to
replace.
"It's now covered over at night so it can't be removed," the spokesman
told the Times.
OK, so get
the picture? This sack of ‘trash’ was actually a piece of art and
the cleaning people thought it was trash and threw it away when
they cleaned up the place.
Poetic justice if you ask me.
I
just returned from Germany and saw a lot of things over there I
didn’t consider art much less pay big bucks for them. I saw some
large pieces of structural steel that looked like someone had dropped
them from a tall building or an airplane and they just landed on
the ground….kind of like pick-up-sticks. Folks who looked relatively
intelligent were standing around and really staring at this in an
attempt, I suppose, to try and discern what was on the mind of the
artist when he created this so called work of art.
Me? I think
this guy had some old steel beams out behind his warehouse and thought
the park would be a lovely place to get rid of them and pick up
a few euros on the side. Probably just loaded them up in his pickup
truck, drove out in the middle of the night, opened the tailgate
and drove off really fast. He was all set to deny any knowledge
of his foul deed until someone called the news media and told them
about this amazing piece of community artwork. The next day he was
probably back giving a press conference and explaining the symbolism
of his creation.
“Yes, I call it “Man’s awakening’ because it reflects my vision
as to how early man felt when he and Eve were evicted from the Garden
of Eden. Man’s world was total chaos and his angst and pain are
both clearly visible in my sculpture.”
You
know what I’m talking about. We’ve all seen paintings and other
works of art which defy interpretation and understanding. They look
like someone just stood in front of a blank canvas and threw paint
until it got too dark for them to see and they had to go home. These
efforts are designed to inspire us.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame the artist. Any person who
can make some serious money out of trash or just throwing paint
onto a canvas or whatever gets my vote. I think it’s great. I wish
I could do it and keep a straight face. I know I’d crack up trying
to explain the hidden meaning behind anything I might produce. Laughing
while describing your artwork is not good for sales.
But I question the mentality of anyone who buys a piece such as
these and can’t tell me what its meaning is supposed to be.
All of us can look at cloud shapes and tell which one is the bunny
or the duckie, but when we look at a million dollar painting and
can’t tell if it’s a dog or a truck, then something is wrong.
Maybe I’m just not cultured enough, who knows?
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